Low-budget guide for CUBA

Hello felow hitch-hikers,

Here is a link to the short guide for low-budget travellers in CUBA we have compiled recently:

http://www.followtheroad.com/en/letters.php?i=39</a><BR><BR>Moreover, in the PHOTOS section you can also browse our images from CUBA:

http://www.Followtheroad.com/en/photos.php</a><BR><BR>In January we found a sailing boat which gave us a lift from Mexico to Cuba. Over there we stayed 5 weeks and compiled information above. We hope it will be useful for survivor hitch-hikers willing to visit CUBA before big changes happen.

We got a lift out of Cuba by another yacht and arrived to Panama at the begining of March. 6 days of boring sailing. :) We will continue exploring Central America and look for posibilities to get a boat-ride to South America. Crossing Darien Gap by land is probably not for us :)

Augustas and Katja

PS: Those who are interested to receive instant news about our adventures, let us know and we will add your address to our newsletter.

Wow! Thanks a bunch for a most informative and revealling post. You shoot the hell out of conventional thinking about getting into Cuba by yacht and the possibilities of "wild" camping!

Best of luck in your continued adventures!

"Oh, there is another interesting thing worth to mention. If you have a friend in Cuba, you can stay up to three months with him. In this case, your Cuban friend will have to get a permission from the immigration office, which costs 40 USD. This permission is only given once a year."

That's VERY inaccurate, though, and may leave to confusion.

"Let's start with the fact that private cars officially are not allowed to have foreigners in their car."

So is this

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Let's start with the fact that private cars officially are not allowed to have foreigners in their car<hr></blockquote>

Caney (and others invited ...)

Is this so? Open question ...

I also ever thought it ia, but on my last trip I hired a ("illegal") taxi driver to bring us (3 pax) from Havana to Trinidad.
We where stopped by the police and I thought this means trouble. But no ...
Our taxi driver talked very politely to the police, they checked his ID etc, and we were allowed to proceed our trip.

The taxi driver told me there does not excist any official rule/law which says Cubans in private cars are not allowed to transport foreigners in their car.

It could be this taxi driver has friends at the right places, don't know.
Why do I never have had any problem with this? I also got stopped many time but never any problem.
My advise to others is (always) the same as yours, its illegal, but I doubt now after my last trip ...

My first thought:
Which kind of Cuban gets the problems with "illegal" private taxi transport?
Isn't that the issue?

Maybe I am wrong, but where is that rule/law about "Cubans are not allowed to ... "?

Again, this is an open question

I wasn't referring to "illegal" taxis. I was referring to what the OP was talking about: a private, normal car owned by a Cuban.

Caney, we would appreciate if you could send the corrected information. Because saying something is not correct does not give corrections.
Thanks

Caney ... I mean the same ... a yellow numberplate car of a "friend"

But you said you "hired" it...

augustas, the "visa familiar A2" is for foreigners married to Cubans, not for "friends". That's what the law says. Although in Havana, they sometimes do issue this type of visas without the family link proof.

Augustus, I read your story, thank you it was very interesting.

Could you provide more detail how you found a boat to get to Cuba, what is the routine for Immigration when you arrive as a passenger on a boat, how much did they charge for the tourist card, did you say you would sleep on the boat?

Where did you renew your tourist card after 30 days, how did you find a boat to leave Cuba, how was Immigration when you left?

The value of the peso is $1 CUC = $1.08 US plus 3.5% exchange.

Great photos Augustas. I also am interested in that question, as I visit my Cuban family and ride in vehicle with them. We did get stopped once in Stg de Cuba, but so were others, and nothing came out of it. Is there a special document needed?

Caney ...
Forget it ... I think I have to take a flight over to explain it properly to you :)) LOL

There is no law prohibiting Cubans transporting foreigners in their cars. There is however of course, as is the case in most every country, a law that prohibits unlicensed non tax paying taxi service. Of course, police officers that see foreigners in cuban cars will (rightfully) assume that it is a case of a black market taxi service and stop the car. This is why you are often asked to remember a story about how you know the person in question that is driving in order to "prove" a friendship relation.

Generally they manage to talk themselves out of the situation. I believe the fine if they dont manage to do so is around 30 CUC.

Hello 2025.

Answers to your questions.

The best to search for a boat is to go to the marinas in Cuba where International clearance-out is possible.
We targeted mostly on the boats in Cienfuegos marina. Other international clearing-out marinas are Marina Hemingway (near Havana), Cayo Largo, and I guess, Santiago de Cuba (here marina is 15-20km out of the city somewhere).

We were comming to marina evry 3-4 days and asking boats around for a lift. There was another French man who was asking for 15eur/person/day (incl food) if we want to be onboard. We refused, but another travelers (with 2 bicycles) travelled with him and were paying only 10 EUR for both persons excluding food.

No problem with immigration. Nobody cares. It is normal that yachts might change crew members. The captain of the boat has to provide a new crew list upon leaving. For each new crew member marina in Cienfuegos charged us 15 USD/person.

Since we arrived to Cuba by boat, we never paid initial fee for the tourist card (unless our 1st captain paid for us and we did not know that). Visas we extended in Cienfuegos Immigration office (Ministerio del Interior). Ask Casa Particular - i am sure they will know where it is in your city. You have to buy special stamps in one of the banks of value 25 CUC. Go to immigration office with the stamps and your passport, wait in a queue and here you go.

If you sleep on a boat - no cost. Of course the captain has to pay daily for marina for parking his boat.

Any other questions - feel free to ask.
Augustas

Very strange that you did not require a Tourist Card to enter or to leave Cuba, that goes against all conventional knowledge, Cuba is very paranoid about who enters their country.

There is no visa, if you did not get a tourist card what visa did you renew?

Please provide information how to do these things, was it very difficult to go the the marina every 3-4 days, did you hitchhike?

Hi again.
sorry for not being clear.
We had tourist cards(these small piece of paper with stamp), which we got upon arrival at the first marina. But we did not pay for it.
Was not difficult to come to marina in Cienfuegos regurarly, because it is in the city. We stayed in casa particular in Cienfuegos all that time (2 weeks).

#14

Jacques, this may come as a surprise to you but it is an imperfect world, even in Cuba. It is entirely possible that they were actually loose in Cuba in an undocumented fashion. The extension to which the OP refers was probably / or coulsd have been just an initial issue of another tourist card. Hell, you were a bureaucrat. If someone showed up at your desk - what would you have done (to solve the problem and create as little as possible fuss for yourself)?

Thanks Augustus, how much did you spend per day while you were in Cuba ?

Attention, Posters! Thorntree Cuba will now be closed, as we fumigate this branch for pests & nasties who adamantly insist that its impossible for travelers to get to Cuba by boat, there are no boats to Cuba, you cannot go by boat, etcetera etcetera.

All together now, "Row, row, row ye boat..."

Ms. Whosie_Who
Chief Hostess and Ambassatrice of Goodwill
Lineas Fantasias, The Very Ferry Cruise-Time

In 40 days we spent 930 USD for two people. Which is about 12 USD per person per day.
Including accommodation, food (cooked ourselves always with our camping stove), two bus tickets for 33 USD and two train tickets for 32 USD, visa extensions 25 USD each. Accommodation 10-15 USD per day for both. Food - few dollars a day. 11 nights spent in a boat (=no accommodation cost): 3 nights when we arrived to Cuba, and 8 nights we were sailing and staying in Cayo Largo with our new yacht we hitched.

OP will probably forgive us if we indulge in some jokes amongst the insiders which may be unknown to him. He deserves our thanks for blowing some myths out of the water.

I can see Fantasis Ferries stock going to a new high and splitting two for one in the near future.

Anyone for a KOA franchise in Holguin?

How many social workers does it take to fill a Primus stove?

Lithuanians & other East Blockers are far far more economical travelers than 99% of the anglophones posting here. Brilliant, Augustus!

$USD 465 per person for 40 days is less than $12. per day. THAT'S A RECORD, FOLKS! Now: what's the prize?

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Of course, sometimes we had to walk out of the town or the village more than 5 km in order to find bushy place where we could hide during the night. Often there are people on the road passing by with bicycles or horses, but it is possible to wait for the moment when nobody is around and run behind the trees.<hr></blockquote>
I'm sure the OP's travelogue will find its audience. If more people travelled in Cuba like this, maybe it would bring down the costs for more traditional travellers.

Sleeping rough is an excellent way to get scabies or ringworm. THAT'S the prize? Yuck.

Dont scorpions & tarantulas scuttle about, in these bushy places? Let's call it "The Frugal Spider" award: translation?

You can be sure the daily ritual of bathing is not part of this low end tour and you can only imagine what the natives are thinking after they've elbowed their way into a crowded camione. : ((

Travelling in this fashion has its devotees I'm sure. But the excitement seems to come from the lifestyle itself more so than what motivates more mainstream travellors. If you read some branches though you will occasionally run across a budget traveller who can articulately defend what to many seems to be the travel world's functional equivilent of homelessness.

OP should explain how he caught the yacht from Mexico to Cuba because I'm betting he's got a lot of his compadres salivating over the thought of gliding over the waves with the cool wind in their face , sailing the seas to Cuba. His account of entering without paying or how and from whom he got the tourist card seems a little sketchy to me though. Maybe things have changed, but I can't imagine Cuban Immigration at a port of all places not having at least some curiousity about a couple of $12 a day travellers turning up on a boat.

Augustas, thanks for your itemized price listing, bus and train tickets are not sold in USD.

Your trip doesn't sound much like a backpacker trip, 1 night sleeping in the bushes, 2 weeks in a casa in Cienfuegos, 11 days sleeping on a boat, other than collecting prices for fruits and veggies and off season prices for accommodation did you do anything else in Cuba?

OP

Be careful with our friend 2025. He seems to be sliding towards his attack mode which could strike any time now as the sun starts to set. He's also our favourite MANIAK, right Jacques?

I'm a little slow on math but everything you have said has added up to me.

I have one question which I have been holding back. What did you do about drinking water? Do you have some sort of filtration system?

to 2025:

We travel with backpacks. I guess, we are backpacking. I don't know what does this word mean for you. You are right, we do not walk in the streets with LonelyPlanet book, neither do what it says.

Our main target of the trip are people. To meet them, to talk to them, to stay with them and maybe keep in contact in the future.

The information we publish on the website provides hints for travellers (not for holiday tourists) willing to reduce costs in Cuba - the country which is designed unfairly to suck money from foreigners.

In Latin American countries our monthly budget is 300 USD for 2 persons. Cuba was more than twice expensive for us. We couldn't afford ourselves to enjoy luxury buses. And, unfortunately, we couldn't enjoy our beloved hitch-hiking, which is not natural for foreigners because of the system in Cuba.

We liked Cuba people and nature which we saw, but not the system which limits the freedom, not only for the locals but also for us.

to davfitz:

We rarely buy water, only if we want to change our plastic bottles. We drink from the pipe. In Mexico in every supermarket you can buy water desinfection drops (small bottle for 1.5usd and lasts for 1 month at least). We used them in Cuba as well.

No bathing = reduced costs, ie, no soap, no change of clothes.

Great post providing information heretofore not seen on this branch.

Re foreigners traveling in a personal car, Poster #12 (Lackemacke) has it right. The law does not make it illegal simply to transport a foreigner in your car, but as in most countries, it is illegal to hire yourself out as a taxi unless you are licenced to do so. The big difference is that in most countries, simply having a stranger/foreigner in your car would not be presumed to be a commercial deal. In Cuba, it is presumed to be commercial, and the fact that the foreigner is in your car is all the "proof" needed that the owner is hiring his car out. While some drivers can talk their way out of fines, many cannot. A car I was once traveling in was fined US $90, the owner given 30 days to pay, or the car would be confiscated. (This was I think in 2001.) Not long ago, Truetown (a Havana resident) posted that hardly any private car owner in Vinales will now transport a foreigner because of increasing vigilance by the police in spotting unlicenced vehicles transporting tourists. I expect that, as with unlicenced casas, the law is more enforced in heavily-touristed areas than out-of-the-way places or on a busy Havana street.

The same thing happened in Havana, the same year. I think it was late 2002. All of a sudden, the collectivos wouldn't pick me up and it was HARD finding a gypsy cab. One of the gypsy taxi drivers explained that they were confiscating collectives on the spot (no fines) if there was a foreigner found in it.

One thing is having a Cuban friend with a car and go in his/her car to whatever place, and another is getting into a Cuban taxi for Cubans, which is illegal.